The Doll Maker Alchemist
by Sarina McNight
Summary: Following in the shadows for so long, Cassandra Mathews, the Doll Maker Alchemist, finally comes in to help Edward and Alphonse, but she's afraid her secret will get out. Will it?


The Doll Maker Alchemist

A Full Metal Alchemist Fan fiction written by: SisterofAngels aka Sarina McNight

_A/N: I own no one except Cassandra Mathews and her family. Everyone else belongs to that person who wrote FMA. Also, I'd like to make it a point, that I know that the ages and times in this are completely messed up, and if you follow the show to the letter, like most fan girls do, just don't make a comment about the time flow. 'Cause I know it's wrong. Just really, go with it. I don't know how I was going to make it all right… and I didn't make it the way I wanted to, but whatever. Have fun._

Over time things fade from what they were before, memories become forgotten, and worries become lost. One would think that written records could keep something alive and fresh. But there were no written records on this. Only the memories of those who lived through it could really account for what happened. And if there were written records, then those would be lies unless written directly from the hand of one who experienced the whole thing. But these days, there is only one who would be brave enough without being called a complete lunatic that would be able to correctly write all of what happened those years ago from complete memory, untainted by time and untainted by a want to forget. She knows she cannot forget what happened those years ago. It is too far imprinted into her memory, despite the fact that she ran from it. But now… she feels she cannot run any further and the past will catch up with her. All because of two boys and their quest to make things right for them.

However this fact, she kept a close eye on the boys, working behind the scenes. Two groups of people knew she was there, but didn't know for what purpose, or for really why she interfered. Then again, she didn't even know why she did what she did. She was running on impulse and an implied request from a man who destroyed her life. Though those thoughts came up often, she always suppressed them.

Now you must be wondering, unless of course you've heard the beginning of the tale of these two boys, who they must be. I am only the recorder of such events and despite this, I shall tell you if you hadn't guessed already. The two boys are both brothers. The oldest one is short, about five foot three inches tall, with blonde hair, bangs of which are long and a little hang into his bright golden eyes, the rest is tied back into a braid and one small lock sticks up between his parted bangs. He is typically seen wearing a black shirt and black jeans and boots, with a red coat on, his hands covered by white gloves. If you look hard enough, which usually isn't very hard, a chain runs from his belt loop to his pocket. If you know who this boy is, it's quite obvious to you know isn't it? The oldest brother is Edward Elric.

The younger brother, however, is currently trapped within a large, tall metal armor. Which can look menacing, but the boy's soul is sealed within it. Which of course, couldn't be more caring and innocent. You should have guessed this one now, especially if you knew the first. The youngest brother is Alphonse Elric. Now, what the boys are trying to do, is look for the Philosopher's Stone. With this, they want to get Alphonse's body back, and Edward's arm and leg back. Oh yes. I forgot to mention that Edward's right arm and left leg were not of flesh and bone, but of metal. It's called automail.

Now, you must know the two groups who know the girl. But instead of letting you guess, I'll tell you anyway. The first is a small group of soldiers in the army who are currently stationed in a city called Central. These include alchemists. Oh lord, I can't be a very good recorder of all of this if I forgot to mention that Edward too is a member of the army as an alchemist, who doesn't need a transmutation circle and merely has to clap his hands and then place them on something. My, if I keep forgetting things, surely someone will come and take over my job. Well, I'll try not to forget any more details.

Now, where was I..? Oh yes, the soldiers. These soldiers include the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang, and then Louis Armstrong. However, there are also some soldiers that do not use alchemy, such as Riza Hawkeye, and Maes Hughes. They are the only ones who know that the girl is still alive, and only Roy and Maes (who will now be referred to as Hughes for the rest of this tale) know of her whereabouts and of what she is doing.

Excuse me while I take a drink, this job can get tiring you know?

Anyway, the second group of people are what we call Homunculi. They are a group of people who had died but were resurrected through alchemy. Their reasons for going after the boys differ from homunculus to homunculus, but the majority want to be human again. You see, a homunculus isn't exactly human. They are immortal, living off of philosopher's stones, or something close to that, and they have special powers that belong to each homunculus. Their names also come from the seven deadly sins. However, that is only that group. There are also various homunculus around the world that just haven't banned together like these have, but most have the same quest.

The group consists of Lust, who can extend her fingers into deadly sharp, stakes I guess you'd call them, Envy, who can change his appearance and voice to fit anyone he sees, Gluttony, who can eat anything, Wrath, who, I'm not really sure what his ability was other than being able to touch anything and allowing it to be attached and then used on his body. Wrath however, stole Edward's right arm and left leg from beyond what we call "The Gate" which Wrath is the only homunculus who can use alchemy due to the human parts he connected to himself. Now, back to the list. Greed, who can encase his body with a rock like film that protects himself, Sloth who can change her body consistency to that of water and flow around like that, and then Pride, who I believe has what we call "The all seeing eye" but I'm still not exactly sure what his ability is.

Some of these homunculi have a special relation to the boys in this story. Lust, was not only the first to sort of, go after the boys, but was also the fiancee to Scar's brother. Scar is after the boys because of his quest to kill all Alchemists, due to his heritage of being an Ishbalan who believe that Alchemy is the devil's work. Envy is after to kill the boys for a personal matter. Behind the scenes, we know that Envy has some sort of relation to the boy's father, and is jealous or in other words envious of the two Elric brothers. Gluttony doesn't really have any sort of relation to the boys, but is after them quite a lot because he depends on Lust. Wrath was once, before he died, the son of Izumi, who trained the Elrics. The last homunculi who has any sort of relation to the brothers is Sloth, who was the Elrics mother before she died, in which the brothers had tried to bring back to life.

Greed has no relation to them except for wanting to know how Alphonse could live in a hollow armor. And Pride is a mysterious one who behind the scenes we know is to be Furher, or in other words, the King. Sloth is his secretary, though no one knows about their real identities.

I guess I should get on with our story, shouldn't I?

Oh wait. The girl, I never explained who she was. Though her background will take quite a while to explain. I shall tell you about her anyway.

The girl's name is Cassandra Mathews. Though at this current time she goes by the name of Samantha Jenkins. Whichever you choose to call her, I will be calling her Cassandra for most of this since that was her birth name.

Years before this story of when she gets involved in the Erics' lives, almost 20 years before that, she was born in Central. Her mother died when Cassandra was born, so Cassandra lived with her father and older sister. Her father was an alchemist in the Army, and her older sister worked at a shop not too far from where they lived. So Cassandra was usually left alone, and she learned to cope with that. One day her sister fell very sick, about when Cassandra was 7. Cassandra, mind you, was extremely talented in alchemy. And the war with Ishbalans has started by now. Cassandra's sister was sick for almost a year before she passed away. Cassandra's father, however, was so grief stricken he brought the older sister back to life, despite the fact that he lost his life in the process, he made her into a perfect homunculi.

Cassandra, however, wanted nothing to do with her, and the older sister ran off in search of someone. Being alone now, Cassandra worked doing small delivery jobs by riding a bicycle with a small wagon type attachment on the back. She used her alchemy to make flowers and such. But what she was truly gifted at, was making dolls out of people. She discovered later that when she used the dolls, they became what you all call a Voodoo doll. She used this to her advantage, especially when someone tried to bully her or even tried to steal from her.

She made an alright living. However, she couldn't pay for electricity and could just barely make the water bill and then of course, food was always sparse. Though, she was saving for new clothes and shoes. After about a year of savings came up, she went and bought these new clothes and shoes and wore them for quite a few deliveries. When she had finished one to one of her normal customers, they spoke for a while. Cassandra at this time, however, was about 11. Quite easily persuaded into doing almost anything. The woman told her about how Cassandra could find out if she could apply to become a state alchemist. The woman told her of the pay, and such, and how the girl's talents could be of great use there.

So the girl studied in her spare time. She went to a library and studied as much as she could. When it came to application day, however, they turned her down. A young Roy Mustang was standing guard that day, along with a young Hughes. They decided to watch her a little, curious as to why the girl wanted to become a state alchemist. (State Alchemists are the Alchemists that belong to the Military.) After a few days of watching her, they came to the realization that they had never seen a girl her age complete feats as she did.

Especially on the last day they watched her.

Cassandra, by this time, had long blonde hair tied up in a dark green ribbon, her blue eyes glittered. She was about 12 and a half and proud of it. She stood at only four foot ten inches, but she walked with pride. She wore a black shirt with a black skirt and black knee high boots, that had no real heal on them. Though she sometimes changed the color of her clothes, she always wore a dark green jacket, the cuffs around her wrists, on it, were a tan color and the jacket had a hood, which she put up when it was raining.

That day, she attended a hand to hand combat class in the morning, proving to be a very skilled fighter, and one of the top in the class. She then took her bike home, attaching the wagon onto it. She rode to a flower shop two blocks down and stopped there, picking up a pack of small note papers with writing on them. She flipped through them as the owner of the store stocked the wagon attachment onto Cassandra's bike. Cassandra also accepted a semi-large pouch, which Cassandra tied onto a belt that went around her waist. She then made her deliveries. At a few of the houses, she lingered inside.

Inside of these houses, there had been special orders, ones for Cassandra herself. What she did when she got to these houses, was to not only take the flowers or whatever they ordered from the flower shop, but she also took a handful of dirt in with her. Inside, she was told who to make a doll out of, and she plucked a strand of hair from their head, and closed it in her fist with the dirt. Light from an alchemic reaction would burst from her hand, and when she opened it, a doll the size of her hand would appear there.

They paid her extra for this, and that extra she put into a different bag, and not into the bag that was designated for the flower shop. She did this for hours. Not getting tired, even as it started to rain. She went back to the flower shop and was given a couple more orders. They also put a cover on the wagon with a few cloths, tightly wrapped around frame they made of her wagon. Once this was done, Cassandra put her hood up and continued her deliveries.

On her way home from the deliveries, however, a bolt of lightning hit a house not too far away from her. The house quickly started to burn and screaming could be heard from inside. A man and three children came out. The children started to yell at the man, who seemed to be the father, that their mother was still inside. Cassandra didn't really think at this point. She got off of her bike and ran to the house, jumping over the high fence and ran into the quickly burning building. She ran up to the second floor and helped the woman carefully get out of the house. Once she had done that, the man picked up his wife, and thanked Cassandra fully. But because Cassandra wasn't about to let anyone lose everything, like she had, she wasn't done.

From the long day of rain, puddles had formed around the house in the yard. Cassandra placed her hand in one puddle and the water shot up, putting out a great deal of the fire. But the building wasn't strong enough to stay standing so it collapsed.

The small 12 year old, walked up to it and calmly put her hands onto the fallen home. Wind started to kick up around her, making her coat and hood flap wildly. Light burst from the remains and then stood in a pillar. Which then formed into the house that had stood there before. Once done, she stood and turned, the light already faded. Cassandra's hair was a mess, pieces had fallen out of her ponytail and her hood had fallen. Despite the feat she did, Cassandra was not tired, nor did she appear it. She wasn't happy, she wasn't sad. The man and woman hugged her, thanking her for what she had done, but Cassandra still felt incomplete with what she had done. None of it satisfied her. She wished that the people from the military could have seen what she did, and then maybe they'd consider letting her try to become a state alchemist.

What she didn't know, was that Roy Mustang, Louis Armstrong and Hughes had all seen her. Not to mention, at that time, a general had been driving by the home, on his way home.

The next day, she had been mailed an invitation to the military office in the center of Central for the next day. She informed the owner of the flower shop of this and was given the day off.

The day of the meeting, she'd been given the test, which she had finished and received a perfect score on. She was given the interview right after that and was given full marks on. They told her that she had to wait a week for the field test. She agreed and went on with normal life after that for the next week.

During the field test, someone picked a fight with Cassandra. She looked to the officers standing by for an okay to fight the man. She had fully warned him, with a calm, cool, face, void of emotion, that she wouldn't hurt him. The man, however didn't listen to her. The fight only took two minutes. In that time, Cassandra had avoided any attempt of an attack, jumped up, taken a piece of his hair, formed it into a doll, pulled out a long needle and thread, and had used the thread to tie up the doll's arms and legs, and then the legs to his hands so he couldn't move and positioned the needle above the doll's head. Everything the doll did, the man did, and he struggled against the invisible binds on him, but couldn't move much.

She reminded the man that she wouldn't hurt him, and he only jeered back. So she shoved the needle through the doll's head, and the man yelled out in pain, screaming about his head. She then removed the needle, and the man only whimpered. One of the officers announced the end of the test, and Cassandra released the man and made the doll turn back into dirt and the man's one strand of hair, which she let float away on the wind.

Cassandra became worried. After the test, she'd waited about a week for any word that she'd gotten in. A few days later, a letter came to her, advising her to go to the central office. While there, she was given the title "The Doll Maker Alchemist" and then a state pocket watch.

Despite this happy moment for her, and the lift of her spirits, she didn't know that her future would only become grimmer. Filled with more blood and screams than she had ever wanted to see or hear. Because, the General of the Military wasn't concerned with Cassandra's physiological well being in all of this. He just wanted to kill off the Ishbalans.

Oh goodness, now for a time skip. Cassandra wasn't put into any working team for the war until about a year later, at one of the peaks of the war. She was ordered, as a 13 year old, to run around on her quick legs, and pluck a hair from every Ishbalan she saw, and not to come back until the next evening. She went through the entire cities, doing this nonstop. When she came back, she was tired of running, and had nearly a bag full of hair. They supplied her with dirt, and set her to work. She emptied the bag on to the dirt and then created over 200 dolls.

However, this didn't seem that bad. The worst part came late at night, after she'd been given a four to six hour nap. When they woke her up, they ordered her to cut off the heads of each doll. At first she was confused as to why, but then she realized why they wanted that. She refused to do it, but it got to the point where they would kill her if she didn't. She lined all of the dolls up, each touching the other and when she was finished lining them up, gun pointed at her head, she placed a hand on one, closed her eyes and listened to the ripping sound of fabric that lasted for a long time as the head was torn off of each and every doll. Children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Once the ripping stopped, she opened her eyes and looked out the window. There were screams coming from the town below. People ran out of their homes, covered in blood.

Cassandra, however, sat there, wide eyed with horror, tears spilling from her eyes. She shook as she grew paler, as what she did finally clicked all the way and sunk in. The man who had a gun to her head, lowered his gun and patted her on the back, telling her she did a good job.

She stood up and gave a swift punch to the guy's jaw, screaming at him. He took the butt of his gun and slammed it against her head, just above her temple, and she fell to the ground unconscious, surrounded by dolls of Ishbalans with their heads torn off and the stuffing coming from their insides.

From that day forward, Roy Mustang, Louis Armstrong and Hughes all watched after Cassandra. At least, until the day they were all assigned a sector of Ishbala. In Cassandra's when the signal was given, all she did was dig her heal into the ground a little, and the ground shot up in front of her in a large wave of spikes. She was dull then, her senses numbed, so she couldn't comprehend what she was doing this time.

Thousands more dead by her hands. More weights that were put onto her shoulders. Ones she felt she couldn't bare.

The night before they left, Cassandra took all of her dolls and destroyed them, making them back into the dirt and hair they started out to be. She took all of the hairs and put them into a bag.

However, Cassandra didn't go to Central with the rest. Roy, Armstrong and Hughes all bought her land passed a small town that was about a two hour train ride from Central. It was a large area of land, and there she stayed. She built it out of alchemy, a thick, very tall wall was around it with a black rod-iron gate that stayed locked, at one end that had a path to the town. Inside of the wall and the gate, stood several buildings with nicely paved roads. A few had farms, others were nice little inns. A few were restaurants and others had little shops. Whatever the buildings were, the highest they went was three stories high. In the dead center of the town was a very tall tower, of about ten stories with a clock on all four sides.

Within this tower was where Cassandra lived. And the people that lived in her town, was a doll image of each Ishbalan she killed. Around one of Cassandra's bedrooms within the tower, sat each and every doll that she had used in the war. She also had a doll of Roy, Louis and Hughes, as a way of remembrance.

Within the highest room in the tower, it was almost like a bell tower, just without the bell. The room was large, and had a large piece of the concrete cut out on each side, so that the corners were like pillars. She usually spent a lot of her day, just sitting in the window watching the people outside. But other times, she leaned over a large three dimensional map, watching small wooden dolls walk around, buy groceries, tend their gardens. Watching the guards patrol around.

Until one day.

Cassandra was 18 now, having stayed within her town for 5 years. The war was seemingly near over and luckily, no one had found her little town. She called Roy now and then to update him on how she was, pretty much just to reassure him that she was still living.

Though this day, Hohenheim Elric came to her town. The guards couldn't keep him out and they yelled for help. People had run into their homes and Cassandra had jumped out of her tower from the top floor, running along the roofs of buildings before jumping down and standing before Hohenheim himself. She ordered the guards to stand down and to go back to their positions before taking him up to the top floor of the tower.

They spoke briefly, just enough so that Cassandra understood why he was there. Though something she didn't expect, happened within a matter of a second. She agreed to look after Edward and Alphonse, and make sure that they didn't die, pretty much, and to also look after…

He had pulled it out of his coat, how it fit there without detection was beyond Cassandra's level of thinking and comprehension.

It was huge..! He had pulled out a very large Philosopher's stone. The next thing that happened, was he took a large chunk of it, near half, and put it within her body, and then changing her into a small seven year old, with long brown hair and hazel eyes before he left.

This change had knocked her unconscious for a good long time. She didn't know what day it was when she woke up, but was overly freaked out about her appearance. But then, she remembered her promise to Hohenheim. Despite the change, her voice only grew a little younger, but it was still noticeable that it was her.

She called up Roy and convinced him to let her stay with him for the next week or so before she got changed into the outfit she used to wear when she was a child. She rode a bike from her town, completely locking it up and putting the guards on high alert before she left, and went to the train station.

Small brown haired Cassandra looked very odd on the train back to Central with her bike. She kept her hood up so her eyes were kept in shadow so no one could identify her. Once the train stopped in Central, Cassandra got back onto her bike and rode all the way to the military offices.

Guards tried to deny her entrance but she showed them her pocket watch and they let her in. Leaving her bike outside, she made her way into Roy's office and she slammed her fist against his office door twice. Roy's poor secretary, however, didn't know what to do.

She shakily opened the door for the little Cassandra and closed it behind her.

Now let's go in for a closer look on this than my own summarization.

The small girl walked into Roy's office, where Roy and a woman named Riza Hawkeye, along with Hughes and Louis Armstrong were all standing around Roy, who sat at his desk, hands folded in front of him. In the middle of the office, there was a long table in which the girl jumped up on and walked down the center of. When she reached the end, she sat down and crossed her legs.

"Who are you..?" Hughes asked.

"Hello Cassandra Mathews," Roy said with a smirk.

"Who? What? ARE YOU SERIOUS!"

"Hello Roy," Cassandra said as she lowered her hood to show her brown hair and bright hazel eyes.

"What the hell happened to you? Your hair's brown… and your eyes!"

"I was found by Hohenheim. He did this to me… Hughes I need you to do some searching for me. I need you to find out where Hohenheim lived, and where his kids are now."

"Why would you need to know that..?" Hughes asked before he turned on Roy, "Why didn't you tell me this happened! Why Roy!"

"I asked him not to Hughes… I really did. Roy didn't tell Louis either. Or Riza."

"Cassandra, you're in luck. I received a letter from the oldest of the Elric brothers. I'll be heading over there tomorrow," Roy said calmly to her.

"Is that an invite to join you?"

"Only if you want. I won't make you."

Cassandra thought about it for a while, all of the positives and negatives of going. But she summed it up to be an okay. That next day they went to watch Edward and Alphonse for a day or two.

And thus began her almost stalker tendencies for the next few years. She lingered in the shadows, watching the boys, never involving herself unless it was a life or death situation. She was there on several occasions but never reveled herself.

Until the one day she got involved… that one fateful day when Envy had killed Edward. And this is where the story you know falls apart. Forget everything you learned about the story from after that part. Because really, this is going to just get more and more screwed up if you conflict it with what you know. When reading this, shatter all ideas and knowledge you know about Edward's, and Alphonse's life, because this will conflict everything you know.

Just do it.

Because as the narrator…

The god-like narrator…

Err, I should say goddess-like since this narrator is a girl….

… I as the narrator is telling you to do this. And as such… Do it?


End file.
